Monday, May 25, 2009

No Time These Days

Do you ever feel like sometimes you don't have enough time in your day? I think I've felt that way for a good week now. There has been a lot going on lately for me and I've been finding it difficult to fit in my normal activities. I am actually rather relieved American Idol is over because I just don't know how I'd be able to fit that into everything. It actually ended at a perfect time. And even though it's only been a little less than a week since I last blogged, I feel like I could've been able to blog every day, but just couldn't get the opportunity. Anyways, this is why I been feeling so overwhelmed this past week.

The first significant undertaking in my life these days is the hunt for a house. I actually started working with a realtor a few weeks ago and went to see a few houses in person. This is basically how the tour went: the first house was a complete dump, the second house was better, but the home needed to be connected to the township's water system, which would've cost $15,000. So obviously you could tell that was out. The first impression of the third house we visited: smokey, VERY smokey. Obviously someone needs to install some air fresheners! The fourth house was decent, needed some work, but the taxes are very high in that particular area. So it was way down the list. The fifth house was the big winner on the tour. The house had been updated very nicely and the price was actually pretty reasonable. Right now, it's the front runner. And last but not least, the sixth house on the tour was pretty much run-down. It had a lot of land but the house needs some pretty extensive work. I just don't know if I'd be willing to continuously work on it at this point in time. Tomorrow I am looking to get pre-approved on a loan and hopefully take another tour of the fifth home (along with my parents who were absent the first time around) and then get the ball rolling on making an offer on the place. I was a little discouraged to learn that the next day, the same realtor I am working with showed the house to a young couple and they really liked it too! So needless to say, if I am serious about actually buying this house, I need to get things moving. More updates to come on this in the future.

Also on my plate - work! Yes, mingled in with the search for a home and the other assorted activities I plan on discussing, I am still busy with work. Believe me, I am very thankful to have a job, particularly in times like these. The same holds true for the area where I live, where good jobs are hard to find. It's just that on the weekends where I work 12 hour shifts, it's hard to do much of anything else except for sleeping, eating, and going to work. On Saturday I had to fit in my niece's birthday party after I slept until roughly 2:30 PM (currently working midnight shift) - and only getting about four hours of sleep. My sister from Wisconsin was also up for the party and the disappointing thing is that I didn't get to spend as much time as I would've liked thanks to my schedule. However, I did get to spend about three hours with her on Friday night and then a bit at the party on Saturday. So all was not lost there.

And that's not all - I am also the main project planner for the improvement projects we are going to be making on my parents' house this summer. We're going to be replacing four windows, install plenty of vinyl siding, and try to make the house weather and energy efficient as much as we can. At this stage of the game, I am figuring out our supplies list which is a pretty time-consuming task. And sometimes, I run into motivational issues to get this done. I don't have much more to go and probably after I'm done writing this blog, I'll get working on that and try to finish this up. I have a feeling we'll be making a trip to the big-box hardware store sometime the end of this week because a lot of the supplies we need for this project are on sale. My dad also wants us to go to the place where we ordered windows and siding from last year and get all that ordered. So as you can see, I have a deadline! But that's not always a bad thing, either. I tend to work the best when under pressure.

You add those things, plus trying to keep up with this blog, and other normal everyday activities like spending time outdoors and running errands - and you can see I have a lot going on. To some I'm sure it doesn't seem like much. But for me, where I tend to lead a pretty low-key life, it's suddenly turned to quite a lot. And that's fine in all honesty. It's better to be busy running around than living a completely boring life.

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